The role of English in India is once again a matter of debate in India following the victory of Narendra Modi in last year’s elections. This year’s Lecture in Comparative World History contextualises the influence of Macaulay in the long term. It shows how and why the use of English was spreading in the Subcontinent well before Macaulay’s notorious ‘Minute’ but discusses the Minute’s meaning and global context. The lecture goes on to consider the emergence of modern Hindi and the attempt in the Punjab in the 1880s to reassert the teaching of Persian as a pan-Indian language. It ends with a discussion of the contest between English and Indian languages in the 20th and 21st centuries.

The Lecture in Comparative World History, founded in memory of Professor John F. Richards, is intended to build upon Professor Richards’ belief that knowledge should be shared far and wide and that the opportunity for education should be afforded to as wide an audience as possible, while communicating the distinct and subtle cultural nuances when providing those educational opportunities. This lecture series is sponsored by the Duke University Center for International Studies (DUCIS).

Professor Bayly will talk about his forthcoming book Remaking of the Modern World, a reflection on world history of the last hundred years. This is a companion volume to his Birth of the Modern World 1780-1914. Global comparisons and connections (2004). He will reflect on the meaning and challenges of the writing of global history. This event is co-organized by DUCIS and the Department of History as part of DUCIS’s “Theorizing Globalization” project funded by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation’s “Partnership in a Global Age” grant.

We live in a complicated world, where organizations operate in complex family trees and countries face increased policy interdependence. International organizations play a central role in all policy areas – health, security, finance, transportation, energy, trade, and many more. The panel will discuss whether global governance structures are adequately equipped to deal with the problems of today’s world and how they can be improved.

Please join us for the panel, with:

Tana Johnson (Sanford School of Public Policy and Political Science @ Duke) Author of “Organizational Progeny” (Oxford University Press, 2014) on the role of international bureaucrats in designing new institutions.

Stewart Patrick (Council on Foreign Relations – DFR)Senior Fellow and Director of the International Institutions and Global Governance Program at the CFR. His areas of expertise include multilateral cooperation, international institutions, and the challenges posed by fragile, failing, and post-conflict states.

Phyllis Pomerantz (DCID, Sanford School of Public Policy @ Duke)A former World Bank Country Director and Chief Learning Officer, she is an expert on aid effectiveness, global poverty reduction, and governance.

Wendy Ewald, Artist in Residence for the Duke University Center for International Studies, collaborates with photographer Denise Dixon for the People’s Biennial 2014 exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Detroit. See video

Contextual changes characterized by the globalization of agricultural value chains, rising income, and rapid urbanization not only influence patterns of consumption, competition, and trade but also drive agricultural development and innovation far more than before across sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Agriculture increasingly occurs in a context where private entrepreneurs coordinate extensive value chains linking producers to consumers, sometimes across vast distances. More providers of knowledge are on the scene, particularly from the private sector and civil society, and they interact in new ways to generate ideas or develop responses to dynamics in agri-food value chains. A growing number of entrepreneurial smallholders are organizing to enter these value chains, but others struggle with the economic marginalization as innovative solutions do not reach them due to missing links in the value chains.

In this meeting of the University Seminar on Globalization, Governance and Development, convening on February 27 at 5:30pm, in Room 240 of the John Hope Franklin Center, a panel consisting of representatives from Duke University’s Center on Globalization, Governance, & Competitiveness (CGGC), Oxfam America, and Dutch Agricultural Development & Trading Company (DADTCO), will present conceptual frameworks, drawing on principles of Global Value Chain (GVC) and Agricultural Innovation Systems (AIS), and current practices concerning agricultural innovations in SSA. The seminar is aimed to provide a forum involving academia, international development practitioners, and private sector to discuss how such innovative solutions can provide continent-wide models for inclusive development.